Before I dive completely into this, let’s just get one thing out of the way: I am two things. I am a flattracker, and I am a proud American. What happened last weekend in Spain has me upset, confused and if you read the title, very fired up. I was on my way home from a business trip, carelessly wasting what was left of my month’s data plan just to stream the Superprestigio feed from fanschoice.tv. As I sat in Terminal F at O’Hare International, things were looking good. Sure, Shayna Texter wasn’t going to make the final, but I didn’t expect her to. Shayna isn’t a short tracker. I knew Brad Baker had gotten hurt in practice, but even with that, we were going to be ok. Our national champ Jared Mees was right where we needed him.

Kenny Noyes was doing us proud also, though he left the flat track scene many moons ago after catching road race fever and fleeing for Europe where he has made quite a career for himself. Last year’s Superprestigio winner Brad Baker sat on the sidelines with a separated shoulder after posting the fastest qualifying time. With Brad on the sidelines, I wasn’t really worried, we had the new champ on the starting line and Jared Mees is about as aggressive as they come, or is he?

I took my usual seat in 3A on my puddle jumper ride home from Chicago full on confidence. While Marc Marquez certainly looked much better than he did last year at the event, we are American’s. We invented flat track. We sent a flat tracker over to Europe in the 70’s and he re-wrote the entire play book on Grand Prix racing. THIS. IS. WHAT. WE. DO.

I hopped off the plane an hour later, grabbed my bag and headed for Big White Nasty, my beloved race van. Nixing all “texting while driving” laws, I thought I would check the results real quick just to see how bad the over worked and under paid dirt track champ beat the pretty little foo-foo MotoGP title holder. I caught the headlines. No, it could not be. No, this wasn’t the Super Final, wrong headline, wrong story. HA! Journalists these days…

These Colors Don’t Run….Or Did They?

I quickly found another link. Same thing. My heart sank. My van bogged down actually. We let the pretty little road racers beat us at our own game. How much of a joke are we going to look like now? We still race and win on Harley’s for heaven’s sake. We were already just one or two rungs on the hierarchy ladder of racing from Hillclimb and now this? I scrambled home, fired up the computer and looked for any video evidence of the event. Here is what I found:

Jared Mees has about as much personality as a police officer at a Berkeley California protest. While all the other racers were on the line waving to the camera and having a good time, Jared acted like he was lining up at the PoDunk County fair race for his share of the $500 pro purse so he could fill up his van and dine on a funnel cake until the next race. Lighten up Jared, you’ve been flown to Spain with your wife and treated like a rock star to ride in a race broadcast world wide and in front of 9,000 incredibly excited spectators.

Jared was SCREWED on the start. Great jump, but ole dude just HAD to say he holeshot the best in the world but didn’t have the skills to burn in it that hot. Marquez counters this dudes love for the brakes with a friendly swingarm tap. Marquez gets away a fairly clean, Jared has to pick up the pieces and dig.

And There Goes Jared Mees’ Race. Photo: Flat Track Live

Jared Mees is a fighter. Jared fought the good fight. He charged through the pack, letting Marquez make holes through the field. With a few laps to go it was just he and Marquez. Marquez made mistakes, unfortunately, so did Jared.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Jared gave it all he had. While I feel that he MAY have been able to drop a tooth on gearing, that track was super tight. He probably needed all the decompression braking he could get going into the corner and all the RPM’s he could keep off the exit. Jared also had to deal with running Michelin 17″ rain tires, something we aren’t accustomed to over here. Surely Jared tested with them though before heading over. I know Brad Baker did last year. Jared isn’t dumb. In fact, he’s probably one of the smartest racers in the flat track paddock. He also has Kenny Tolbert as his tuner. I’m sure they had everything as dialed in and ready to go as possible.

Kenny Tolbert Had Jared’s Bike In Perfect Condition…

How do we fix this grave injustice? This is easy. We make this into a “Motocross of Nations” type event, and instead of seeing who gets “invited”, we send a team. We send 3 riders. We hire myself as the team manager because anybody at AMA Pro Racing would pick the wrong racers for the wrong reasons. We send our best 3 SHORT TRACKERS that are good on SLICK, TIGHT, CLAY tracks. You are probably saying “send the king of the singles, Henry Wiles!” Not a chance. You take Henry’s traction away and you take Henry’s win away. Brad Baker is a great choice, as he’s one of our best short trackers.

Let’s Send Kenny and Jake Photo: Today’s Cycle Coverage

How about the others? Just off the top of my head, small, bullring, slick race tracks, who is the best? JD Beach, Jeffery Carver, Jake Johnson, Kenny Coolbeth and Stevie Bonsey top my list. Of that list, Stevie and JD have or had Road Racing careers, so they fit in with the road race crowd. When you guys hire me to be the team Manager, I’m making a call to Brad Baker, Jake Johnson and Kenny Coolbeth first. That’s my A-Team to show the world that we dominate the ovals. Other ideas to take back the crown? Bring them to Lima Ohio, Pomona California or Sacramento California. Let’s see who’s knickers get ruffled when the going gets deep, rough, fast and dusty! We have a full year to figure this stuff out. Let’s all get to work. All together now…. USA USA USA USA…